


The Masks the Monsters Wear

by segmentation



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, Existentialism, Gen, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-02-10 12:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2024754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/segmentation/pseuds/segmentation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amends will be made. Wrongs will be made right. Maybe everything will work out in the end. Until then immortality is a long, lonely road.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

They made up their minds and they started packing  
They left before the sun came up that day  
An exit to eternal summer slacking  
But where were they going without ever knowing the way?  
-Fastball

 

 

_1783_

 

Lust was dead.

She died years ago.

No matter how long he lived, he would never forget it. He had never seen the master so angry before. Too many failures, too many times that he had to take the fall for something else gone wrong. He couldn't have relied on being the perfect pet forever. The tether the bitch had on him was already waning. He was starting to remember things long since buried in his mind. 

Seeing Lust there, in the center of the array bleeding, vomiting up the stones, was enough to make his legs go weak. Why, why was she being punished for his own mistake?

There was nothing he could have done. He couldn't protect her.

She had locked eyes with him, said, "I love you," and then she was gone.

Greed had fallen to his knees. 

Had he been human, he would have wept.

He wasn't about to let it happen again. Fuck Pride, screw Gluttony. They could stay behind. But Envy had always been there, had been someone to talk to. He tormented the younger homunculus most days, but it had never been outright hatred. Yet the two were so entwined by her lies it easily could have been.

Greed had failed Lust.

He wouldn't fail Envy.

Greed didn't even bother to knock tonight, barging into Envy's room and shutting the door. His time was so limited now. The master had killed his charge all those years ago and he had never forgotten how hopeless it had made him feel. It was one of those things that should have been impossible. Homunculi don't have emotions. They shouldn't be able to feel things like grief and fear. They certainly shouldn't have been able to feel love. Another lie told to them.

It had taken him decades to come up with this plan. He'd run with Envy. Grab each other's remains, because he knew where they were kept, and they'd run. They'd flee the city, the region, the country. And then they'd start an army strong enough to fight back against her. One day, it would be strong enough to kill her.

Central would burn to the ground if it meant destroying her. Hell, he'd destroy every single city he came across if it means ensuring that the master was dead, that the bitch could never kill a single person that Greed cared about ever again. She would never control _him_ ever again.

"What do you want?" Envy said, looking unhappy. His arms were wrapped around himself as he leaned against the wall. Envy had always been stronger than Greed. If he really wanted to, he could have thrown the other out of the room without a problem. But he didn't. It was as good a sign as any.

"I'm leaving in two nights," Greed began, motioning with his left hand. "Thought I'd give you a head's up."

He was already out the door as Envy screamed, "Get the _fuck_ out."

 

The underground laboratory had fairly sophisticated technology. Vents that could open and close by mechanical means as opposed to needing a person to manually shut them and the containers in the deeper part of the lab would, from what Greed understood, be able to refine liquefied Philosopher's Stone on a massive level.

The master had already found alchemists willing to refine imperfect stones. For the last several years, Greed had been amassing a collection just for this moment. He wouldn't have the fortune of having access to an unlimited supply of imperfect stones, but it would be enough until he and Envy could sweet talk an alchemist into helping them out. 

Humans were all the same. Persuade them in just the right way and you had them dancing in your palm. Greedy, selfish bastards, all of them. It was why he liked humanity as much as he did.

By 1810, the place would probably be a fortress, but Greed didn't want to stick around to find out. He'd come back one day, with his army, and destroy it.

The alchemist who was being used this time was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he was dead, or maybe he hadn't arrived yet. Either way was fine with Greed. He didn't really care about alchemists. They were the master's playthings.

He'd killed plenty already.

Greed was a hitman. A murderer. A monster. He didn't care about the lives he'd ended. It was a job to him-- and something that might be a little fun. He never tortured, he only killed. There was something exhilarating about ending the life of someone who fought back so desperately. Sometimes, alchemists even managed to hurt him. Rarely, they succeeded in killing him. Only for a moment, and then he struck them down as they struggled to understand how it was possible.

A loud snap of metal was the only sign that someone else was in the room with him. Greed spun around to find Envy standing in the threshold. The sound had apparently been him ripping the door from its hinge. 

"I'm coming with you, you bastard," he snarled.

Greed blinked. "Of course you're coming with me," he said.

_"What?"_

"That was the plan all along."

"You could have told me that last night!" Envy hissed. "What if I had said something to her?"

Full of bravado and arrogance, Greed laughed. "I knew you wouldn't," he said. He hadn't conceived of a situation where Envy would betray him. Envy was practically his brother. They had never entirely gotten along, had never entirely been friends-- at least not in the human sense of the word, but the older homunculus had been a constant presence in Greed's life for as long as he could remember. 

Envy quirked a brow, arms wrapped around himself defensively before he laughed. "You idiot," he said, but he didn't sound angry. He was almost smiling.

"I've got everything planned out," Greed said, motioning broadly. He'd planned it out for years. It was flawless, and with Envy now in the know, it would go perfectly. Of that he was certain. So he told Envy of the plan. How they would steal their bones from the house so the master couldn't use them against them. How they would run as far as they could and amass an army. How they would even get alchemists on their side, and how they would kill the bitch. And when that was all said and done, they would go after Hohenheim next.

The look that Envy gave him made him pause. "What?"

" _That's_ your master plan?" the older homunculus nearly shouted. "Are you insane?"

It was Greed's turn to fold his arms over his chest, giving a guarded look. "It'll work out fine."

"We are _not_ carrying our bones across the fucking desert. You could barely move when she threatened you with your _skull_ ," Envy hissed. "We leave without them. As long as we're always one step ahead, she can't do anything to us."

Greed opened his mouth to argue, but wisely chose to shut it. "We're still heading east," he said carefully. "The region's never been stable. We'll be able to slip in without much trouble." A long look was the only way to truly notice anything off about a homunculus, and while Greed had never had any problems with what he was, he wasn't exactly willing to out himself as something unusual while running away from someone who could kill him.

If Envy objected, it didn't show on his face. "Tonight," he said his voice low. "We leave tonight. That gives Pride less chance to suspect something's wrong."

They were really going to do it. They were really going to escape the bitch's hold. They were going to be free for the first time in their lives. "Tonight," Greed repeated, a smirk forming on his lips. 

 

Packing, for a homunculus, was an easy process. Neither of them had many possessions. Greed was content just with the clothes on his back. Envy felt similarly. Still, they needed traveling cloaks to avoid suspicion, especially since they were going to be traveling out east.

Envy was fortunate with his ability to shift forms as he chose. Greed was stuck with the only one he had. The Shield wasn't something he could use, especially if he wanted to remain undetected.

All they really needed were the stones. It was a morbid reminder of what they were leaving behind, but they also couldn't leave without taking any. They still had to eat. Even if they didn't need to eat regularly. 

Both had a small bag of red stones hidden away in their traveling cloaks. With any luck, it would be enough. Refinement on a massive level would be impossible for the two of them, but they both knew the process and could teach it when needed. They would get their alchemist too ambitious to resist, and then they'd be fine.

"Ready?" Greed asked, watching Envy with slight apprehension. He didn't want to admit it, not to the older homunculus, but there was a part of him that was scared of leaving behind the only home he'd ever known. 

"Let's go," Envy said, not meeting Greed's eyes. 

Only time would tell if the tenuous alliance would hold. Greed was arrogant, but he wasn't stupid. They would have to trust each other one way or another. 

This had never happened before.

Never before had a homunculus broken free from her grasp. That two would do it at once should have been impossible. Yet here they were, two men-- two monsters who had never before had to stand on their own walking into the darkness away from everything they had ever known.

All they could do was hope they made it to morning.


	2. Chapter 2

It took a week for the pair to stop constantly looking over their shoulders, always expecting Pride or the master herself to make an appearance. They wouldn't have been dragged back to Central for what they'd done-- they would have been outright killed. The two were still on guard, but the paranoia was beginning to ebb away.

Together, they could probably fight Pride. Greed was sure of that. They would stun him, do _something_ to stop him from following them. Killing was probably not an option, not when they were living in hiding and constantly on the move at that. Even so, there was something... almost exciting about what they were doing. Greed was almost sick with giddiness, like a child in trouble who knew he could be caught by a parent at any moment.

It was as though he was on the verge of mania. He could do _anything_. Hell, he could destroy this entire damn village. Raze it to the ground, kill all of its inhabitants, and he'd still feel like he could do it again and again and again.

The impatient "sit down," was the only thing that made him snap back to reality. 

The pair had not yet fully escaped the master's grasp. They were still in Amestris and still close enough to Central that it would be unwise to assume that Pride wasn't going to come after them. Gluttony wouldn't stand a chance, but Pride... well. The bastard had been the favorite ever since he was born, and he knew it, too.

His companion had not chosen his preferred form since arriving in this latest town. It made things a bit easier for Envy, certainly, but Greed was stuck with his teeth and slit pupils. It made him stick out-- Envy was fortunate, Envy could change his appearance and hide the tells of inhumanity. 

Still, the form that Envy had chosen was a man that the two had assassinated nearly a century before. No one was going to think anything odd about him, especially so far from where the man used to live. It wasn't like he was about to use his _real_ form. Greed had only seen it once, and that had been an accident. 

Envy and Greed didn't stand out as much as they feared they would in the cafe. Plenty of travelers came through this small town. They weren't that different in that regard. Most travelers even refused to say where they were from, so the two didn't even have to come up with a story about where they were from. Still, a bartender in a different town had managed to guess that Greed's accent meant he was from the south, and that had been the signal to the pair to leave that evening.

"Before we left, you told me you wanted to recruit people," Envy said lowly. "Is that still your plan?"

"Of course it is," Greed said, twisting the cup of tea in his hand idly. "But I haven't had any luck finding anyone. This whole damn country is farms and more farms. Not like that'll stop me." 

A gang of humans wasn't exactly the best protection, not against a homunculus like Pride or an alchemist like the master, but at least they would be humans who knew how to fight as opposed to the random rancher or farmer.

He flashed his razor sharp teeth in a grin.

"Would it kill you to stop being so damn cocky?"

"Maybe. You never know. I wouldn't want to risk it."

Envy snorted in what was either amusement or annoyance.

 

Greed had learned a few interesting facts about the village they were currently staying in. Roburk, as it was called, was quite an old town. It was at least two hundred years old, though there was mild debate between locals about when exactly it was first settled. Roburk didn't have as much to it as Dublith did, but it remained an impressively-sized town for a place so far from Central.

If there were any nefarious groups about, they kept themselves very hidden. Even with all of his charisma, Greed hadn't exactly been successful getting information about any strange activities within the town. He was still a stranger, after all, even if he was a talkative one.

The one thing of interest in the town was a museum of children's toys. It struck Greed as a very odd thing to celebrate. Especially since, at least in his view of things, nothing was particularly _old_. A couple hundred years didn't seem like something worth celebrating. 

Then again, the homunculus had never had an actual childhood. He had looked the same as he did now when he had first been born some hundred and seventy years ago.

"I think it's a front for something," Greed told Envy on their fourth day in town.

"I think you're an idiot," his companion deadpanned at him.

"I'm serious. Why the hell would people celebrate something so pointless?"

Envy leaned back against his chair, staring at the younger homunculus incredulously. "Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean that there's a conspiracy behind it, Greed." 

He opened his mouth to argue before shutting it again. "I'm still going to take a look around."

The older homunculus sighed. "I don't have a choice, do I?" he asked dramatically. "Fine. But we're not spending the entire morning staring at toy horses."

Greed couldn't be sure why, but Envy's sarcastic comment put a picture in his head he had never thought of before. He'd never worked with horses before, but the mental image of him riding one was so powerful he nearly dropped his cup. If Envy noticed, he chose not to comment. 

What the hell had that been? A memory?

He'd never even seen a horse up close, so why the hell would he...? Well, he wasn't exactly going to dwell on it. He pushed the image from his mind for the moment.

There was still plenty to do in this town, besides figure out what the hell was with the museum. It wasn't a very big village. It was one of those places where everyone knew everyone else, at least that's how it seemed. If there was a shady underground in a place like this, Greed was going to have trouble finding it. It had been the same in the other places they'd stopped in.

Maybe what he was hoping for wasn't actually possible. Maybe it would take them going to a big city to actually be successful. East City wasn't that far away, but Greed didn't want to go anywhere near a military fortress. 

He'd stick with quiet towns like Roburk any day of the week, honestly.

 

The museum itself was not that interesting. Greed hadn't been entirely sure what to expect, but it hadn't been him immediately being bored out of his mind. Envy pointed out a few things to him, but other than that nothing happened. It was certainly no front for gang activity, though the owner indicated that it had been a while since the museum last received visitors.

If it hadn't been for the old lady asking Greed about the color of his eyes, the day would have almost been incident free. An hour later, now calmed down, he didn't remember what his explanation had been. 

At least Envy didn't look furious with him anymore. 

Hiding the ouroborus had become something of a priority after that. He couldn't afford to be careless, not when Pride could come looking for them. The bastard was strong, and with his Ultimate Eye, fighting him was virtually impossible. He could pick up in the slightest movement, and there was no doubt in Greed's mind that he was strong enough to kill both of them. The master would like that, he was certain. She'd use her favorite to wipe out both of the traitors at once and then no one would be able to stop her.

He couldn't risk something like the old lady's questions happening again. Wrapping a bandage around his hand would have been too obvious, so Greed opted for gloves. His eyes were harder to disguise. Without being able to change appearances, he was stuck with the eyes of a nocturnal predator, but maybe he could make things more subtle somehow. Sunglasses, maybe. That seemed the sort of thing he could wear without causing much suspicion. 

"We can't stay here forever waiting for an opportunity to magically appear," Envy reminded him.

"One more day," Greed said carefully. "All I need is one more day."

 

The plan for gathering a following hadn't materialized during the night. It was aggravating, but not surprising. Greed had never needed to survive on his own before, and though he knew that Envy was in the same position he was, the homunculus couldn't help feeling frustrated about his lack of a concrete goal.

He left the inn to get some air, pulling his gloves on and content just to watch the crowd. People didn't stare at him, thankfully. At least he blended in somewhat. There were still occasional questions for him, which he avoided answering directly. Other than people poking into his private affairs, it was turning into a pleasant morning.

By ten, he was considering telling Envy they should leave, that it wasn't worth sticking around any longer. As if on cue, a fight broke out in the town center. From the looks of things, it was going to get ugly.

So Greed did the first thing he could think of: try and break up the fight.

He approached the two men, both of whom had wicked looking knives in their fists. They were cursing at each other about something-- who knew for sure. Could have been a woman or stolen property, or something else of that nature. It was all the same to Greed. He didn't make a habit of learning what made people tick, save for the alchemists or soldiers who needed to be manipulated.

Still, he liked this town. 

Fighting while he was around was one of those things he didn't like.

"Break it up already," he growled, moving to put himself between the two men.

This was a mistake. 

The larger of the two, a beefy man with a bald head, swung at Greed, aiming for his chest. With his Shield down, the knife sliced through skin with ease, causing Greed to hiss in pain as blood blossomed through the cloth of his shirt. Had he been human, the injury would have been bad news. As it was, the injury healed over in seconds. 

Maybe he should have pretended to double over in pain. Both men had stopped their fighting to stare at Greed, who had just taken a knife to the stomach, and was still standing like nothing happened. "That was rude," he said with a tone like he was describing the weather. "Are we done now?"

"What the hell are you?!" Baldy shouted, still holding the knife. The blood on the blade was the only evidence that something had happened, because Greed had quickly wrapped his cloak around himself to hide the blood staining his shirt.

"Careful," Greed hissed, his tone dangerous and silky. "You don't want to draw a crowd." It was a little late in that regard-- a small group of people had been watching the fight, and a few people murmured about how Greed took a swipe to the stomach so casually. "Shall we go somewhere a bit more private, gentlemen?" It was the menacing tone that made two men who possibly hated each other both nod and follow Greed to a nearby alleyway. 

Two against one wasn't exactly a fair fight, but Greed was aware that his advantage was known. It made for a sticky situation. If he had to kill them after being seen walking off with them... well, he and Envy would have to very quickly leave town. For the sake of lying low, he'd have to attempt this civilly. 

Glancing between the two of them told him quite a lot. They were both experienced fighting. Former military was probably hoping for too much, but at the very least the two of them had extensive experience fighting, and that was exactly the sort of help that Greed needed. "Would you mind telling me what that fight was all about?" asked the homunculus, eyes lit with a primal fire.

A couple of violent humans took some of the heat off of him and Envy. It was one of those plans that Envy would shoot down if he knew about it. Good thing Envy wasn't around, huh?

Greed always prided himself with _his_ particular brand of negotiation. 

"What the hell makes you think we'd tell you?" said Shorty, his own weapon still raised. 

"Because," Greed purred, "If this is a matter than can be forgiven, I might have a job for the two of you."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for taking two years to write the next chapter. Here's to hoping my next update isn't in another two years.

_1785_

 

In the years since the formation of the gang, Envy had learned a couple valuable lessons about humanity. The first was something he had long suspected but never had a chance to find out for certain: that humans were idiots whose luck would run out far slower if they weren't so quick to jump into dangerous situations. The second was that those same idiots were the greatest friends to have by his side.

Baldy and Shorty, the first recruits of the little gang, were still around. 

He'd been angry at first, incredibly angry, that Greed had wandered off only to return a few hours later with two gang members in tow. But time had proven that Greed was capable of rounding up capable allies. By the end of the year their numbers were seven and Envy couldn't help appreciating the irony of it all.

Shorty had found them an unused space on the outskirts of town that Greed had converted into a fairly popular spot in two years’ time. For a creature who claimed to love associating with the seedy underbelly, Greed did a decent job of not attracting unwanted attention to the pub. It was not a wholesome place, but neither was it a place where violence and brawls happened. Within days of establishing the place, the owners' rules had become common knowledge. Greed and Envy would always treat their own fairly, and any rule-breakers would fine themselves wishing they hadn't crossed either man.

Maybe that was why, one day in June, an old man approached the counter. Greed was seated in one of the booths, his arm around a brunette named Mary. She purred when he was close, and puckered her lips when she leaned against him. It made Envy roll his eyes, watching his brother--his idiot younger brother-- lean in close, whisper something to the woman that made her giggle loudly.

“What can I get for you?” the bartender asked, as the newcomer took a hesitant seat at the bar. 

“Information,” the man said. Envy turned to look at him, carefully. It wasn’t that unusual of a request; the gang wasn’t quite the underground, wasn’t quite the dangerous sort to take its fights to the town, but rumors spread like vines in the bar; the seeds of discontent within Roburk often trickled through here first. The man was probably looking for money, or for someone who had stiffed him.

“And what sort of information would that be?” 

“My daughter,” the old man said, his voice distant. “She’s gone missing.” Envy looked up, listening intently. They’d never had anyone come into the pub asking for help. It was strange; they weren’t exactly the police.

“Should contact the sheriff; we don’t deal with that sort of information,” the bartender said, and Envy couldn’t help nod along. He leaned in closer despite himself, wondering if the old man had anything else to say. 

For a long moment, the man didn’t speak, and then he reached into his pocket, pulled out a thick wallet full of money, and placed it on the countertop. “The sheriff won’t help me,” he said.

 

Forty minutes later, Envy, Greed, and the old man were seated in a private room. The old man introduced himself as Robert Chester, an alchemist who had been delving into alchemy frowned upon by the state. “I have reason to believe my daughter has been kidnapped by my enemies,” he explained. He looked old and tired, and it reminded Envy of his father.

It was a detestable thing to admit to himself, that he could think of the man and have an emotion other than blind rage consume him, that he could feel _pity_ , nearly, for a man whom he hated with every fiber of his being. The man nearly shook with rage, tried to quiet it for fear the alchemist would turn on him, not wanting to know what else he might have in store for them, not wanting to know if maybe he was working for _her._

They had only escaped a few short years ago. It was always, always possible she would find them and kill them. He was always wary and concerned, and Envy knew, despite how relaxed and carefree his brother acted, that Greed was just as wary, just as paranoid as he. 

Greed, Envy’s cautiousness rubbing off on him, frowned for a long moment, suspicious, before saying, “What exactly were you researching?” 

In response, Chester pulled out something from his pocket: a glittering red, badly fractured, gem. It was a Philosopher’s Stone. “Do you understand now, why I am asking for your help?” he asked slowly, expression both tense and far away at once. It was like he had been suddenly, sharply kicked in the stomach. Envy stood up at once, and by the sound of a chair scraping, Greed had had the same thought.

Of _course._ A trained alchemist would know immediately what they were. It wasn’t as though Greed ever thought to hide the ouroboros on his hand.

Greed looked tense. Envy wanted to punch something into the ground, and the old man, seemingly satisfied, slid the Stone back into his pocket. “I don’t wish to harm you. Find my daughter, and nothing will happen.”

Envy’s hand shook from rage, but Greed was quiet, looking contemplative. Of the two, he was better with people, and Envy knew it. “What do you need us to do?”

 

Mary would be going with them. It was her stipulation, and one flutter of her large blue eyes and Greed melted, swore he would do everything his doll wanted. It made Envy groan, but Mary was also not someone to underestimate. She was a cutpurse; before she met the gang, she had been fighting on the streets. In the dim light, it was hard to notice the dull lines of pale scars that lined her arms.

Two homunculi and a thief. They made an interesting group. Chester had pulled out another something out of his pocket, this time it had been a neatly written note in blocky letters that made handwriting difficult to judge.

THE WOODS OF ROBURK  
COME ALONE

Envy still figured the old man should have gone to someone who was more likely to give a damn, but the vague threat of the Stone-- just the idea that Dante might know this man, was enough to compel him forward. Roburk didn’t have the nearly impenetrable forest of Dublith; they would be out here for a few days at most, looking for any sign of something that was amiss. He could only hope that they would find the old man’s daughter alive, because he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of an alchemist’s wrath.

He’d seen enough of it coming from his former master. He didn’t want to know what secrets Chester could be hiding.

“We’re heading out?” Mary asked. The flirtatious girl from earlier in the day was gone, replaced instead with a woman who grew up on the streets; hard wiry muscle and all business. 

Greed nodded, glancing at Envy. “Come on, let’s go,” he said, resolute. “We should try to get this done before nightfall.”

Privately, Envy wished his brother wasn’t so quick to want to help people. They should be surviving, should be hiding. Their master was still out there, could still come after them at any moment-- he didn’t fully trust the alchemist, nor entirely believe there really was a daughter out there who needed rescuing. This was going to be a trap; this was going to get them killed.

But what choice did he have?


	4. Chapter 4

Moving through the woods at night had its disadvantages. Mary couldn’t see in the dark as well as the homunculi, but it was the best chance to move. The kidnappers were only human, and wouldn’t have the same advantage they would have during the day. Fortunately for their associate, she had the advantage of experience with fighting in the dark. Mary may just have had normal human eyesight, but Greed had first met her in a dank and dimly lit alleyway.

The woman had an uncanny ability to know where sounds were coming from; if she wanted to, she could have very easily fought blindfolded. 

The others could mind the bar-- in truth, Greed wanted to be around Mary. He suspected Envy already knew why, because Greed wasn’t the sort to lie and didn’t see the point in hiding something that didn’t bother him. 

“This is creepy. I feel like someone could leap out at us at any moment,” Envy said in a low voice, his pupils dilated nearly entirely black. To homunculi eyes, the woods at night weren’t so different from the woods during the day, but it was still eerily silent. Neither of the two really wanted to be out tonight.

“I’d hear them coming,” Mary said quietly, playing with a knife in her hand, letting the moonlight that trickled through branches reflect off of it. She was as dangerous as she was beautiful, and could strike like a viper with that blade of hers.

“Have you ever seen anything that looks like a cabin in the woods before?” Greed asked.

“Plenty of ‘em,” Mary said. “The hunters use them in autumn to hunt the deer around here.”

“Great. So we don’t know where the hell to look. Fantastic!” Envy snarled behind them. Mary was quick to shake her head.

“No,” the woman said slowly. “We look for the one with the lights on. That’s simple enough, isn’t it?”

Envy rolled his eyes, but didn’t retort anything back.

 

The group traveled in silence for a while. The forest here might not be as big as the impenetrable, spooky forest of Dublith, but Roburk was still large enough that finding the cabins was proving difficult. They had already come across two of them, both unoccupied-- the doors were locked, lights were out. If these were kidnappers out for money, they’d make themselves a bit easier to find, Greed reasons.

At least, he would make himself find-able. He didn’t have the same fears as a human would, had no reason to assume a chess game of sorts would be his undoing. But these people responsible? Oh, they knew.

If they weren’t stupid, they’d be heavily armed.

But then, they were human. Greed was a homunculus. Most humans had never even heard of such a thing; those that had, for the most part, considered homunculi nothing more than legend. 

They stepped into a clearing and Mary waved to get their attention. There was a small cabin not too far from where they were. It was more of a hut, really. One room, and there was a single dimly lit light coming from one of the windows. They crept closer, careful not to make a sound. Envy and Greed didn’t need to breath, but Mary did, and somehow she seemed to hold her breath the entire time they approached. At some point, she’d switched out the knife for a gun, and now the pistol was out, gripped tightly in her right hand.

She reached out for the door. It was locked.

“Around back,” Envy mouthed, inclining his head carefully.

The group moves carefully, and Mary looked around for any sign of the kidnappers inside the windows. She pointed out a huddled figure in a white dress who looked about twelve. She was young, younger than Greed had been anticipating, but unless kidnapping children for ransom was a common problem around here, he reasoned they had found the girl.

Envy found a window pane that slid out ever-so-easily, and all three of them crept in. The room they found themselves in was completely dark. It looked like it had once been used for storage, but the only thing in it now were a couple of dusty shelves.

Greed approached the door first, sliding it open carefully. Two men stood near the girl, who had her arms wrapped around her knees.

“Do you really think he’ll come?”

“’Course he’ll come. This is his kid. We get him, we’re set for life, don’t you realize? He’s got one of those forbidden stones, doesn’t he?”

Ah. That would explain it.

Greed took the opportunity to loudly clear his throat, and the two men started, both raising weapons. Envy and Mary joined him, and for a long moment, nobody moved. And then one man pointed a gun at Greed’s head and said, “The bastard should’ve come himself.” 

He fired.

The bullet _bounced_ , lodging itself into a wooden panel. The girl shrieked, both men stared at Greed for a long moment as his Shield retracted from his face, and then they charged.

 

The girl let out a scream when she saw Greed’s claws, saw them sink into the stomach of one of her captor’s, watched him thrash and shriek and go still, Greed pulling away and staring at the man for a long moment. It seemed like eons ago he had killed for pleasure. Now he just felt a sick sort of emptiness in his stomach.

It reminded him that he was dead; a corpse reanimated through forbidden alchemy and kept alive with more death. Death would follow the homunculi wherever they went, an inescapable shadow. 

His claws shrunk back into human hands, and the girl started sobbing. He could feel blood dripping down his fingers.

Greed wasn’t human, never would be. Sometimes, he wished he didn’t have such powerful memories of someone he wasn’t and never would be.

There was an outraged snarl from behind, and Greed spun around in time to watch the other kidnapper, his knife raised, try to stab him, but the homunculus was too quick, and side-stepped out of the way. The man barreled into the wall, and then saw the crying girl curled up on the floor. He grabbed her roughly, still clutching the knife. Greed saw that his hand was shaking, but it didn’t stop the man from neatly placing the blade to her throat.

“You move and I kill the bitch,” he hissed.

Mary had her gun out, pointed at the man, but her hands were trembling. “I can’t get a clean shot,” she whispered.

Envy was frozen, and the poor girl in the kidnapper’s grasp looked close to screaming. The poor thing was still, her gaze still locked on Greed, locked on the man who had killed someone in front of her.

There was a loud, sudden bang against the door, the sound of someone trying to get in. The kidnapper paused, presses the knife hard against the girl’s throat, enough for a line of blood to form and drip along the blade. And then, without warning, glass shatters, and the man _panicked._ His hand slipped, knife embedded in the girl’s side. There was a shriek, a loud _bang_ and both the man and the girl were in a heap on the floor.

Mary had the gun trained at the man’s head, but he was still. The girl was still screaming, and in a rush of alchemic power the door to the cabin morphed open and in rushed Chester.

It wasn’t until they would leave the cabin that it would occur to Greed that the man had been following them.

Chester rushed to the girl, to her bleeding side. “Oh, my Anna,” he said frantically, pulling out the Stone, the precious Philosopher’s Stone, holding it over her wound. It was bad, possibly fatal. This was it, this was over. 

She was going to die, and for what? 

Maybe humans and homunculi were just too incompatible, incapable of understanding each other on a core level. If she died, would he attempt to bring her back? Would a new homunculus be born, only to suffer and then die, never understanding the images that flashed through its head, never understanding why it had been born only to experience agony? 

Greed wanted desperately to avert his gaze, but he couldn’t. He stood, transfixed and silent, watching this man whom he had met only hours before desperately trying to save his daughter’s life.

The man, Chester, he was murmuring a lullaby to the girl, and in that moment, Greed thought the child looked very young. She stilled, hissed in pain and sobbed, clutching at her father’s cloak. It was probably because he wasn’t human that he didn’t understand the emotion, didn’t understand why both Envy and Mary had gone so very still and quiet.

He thought, to himself in the back of his mind, that this had all been hopeless from the start.

But then the stone began to glow, her wound closing, Anna’s breathing slowing to a normal, less frenetic, level. The healing power of the Stone was impressive, even for one as used up and dead as the alchemist had. Greed wondered where he had gotten it from, if perhaps Dante or Hohenheim had given it to him. Maybe Chester was Hohenheim himself, in disguise. Maybe it wasn’t a real Stone at all, but some sort of twisted fake, still made of human souls and death.

Greed could almost picture the laboratory under Central, and the room that smelled strongly of blood.

The Stone guttered in Chester’s grasp and then crumbled to dust. It was finally completely spent, and maybe that meant something, meant the souls were destroyed or finally allowed to move out. It was impossible to say. He scooped his daughter up in his arms, gave her saviors a long, long look, and then he was gone.

They never saw him nor his daughter ever again.


End file.
